When it’s time to pick your new intranet, one of the choices you’ll eventually have to make is whether you should choose an independently managed intranet or one built on a tool you’re already using. In many businesses, this will mean choosing a standard intranet or choosing an intranet built on Office 365 or SharePoint.
This can be a hard decision to make. There are hundreds of intranet providers in the world – choosing one will take time and consideration. At Dock, we’ve created a series of guides to help you understand the features and promises offered by intranet providers. In this guide we’ll explain why many businesses choose an Office 365 or SharePoint based intranet instead of a standard intranet.
Maximize ROI for #Office365 #informationtechnology https://t.co/wmuVysRH7m
— Dock Intranet Portal (@mydock365) March 9, 2018
Many modern offices subscribe to Microsoft Office 365. In fact, according to a Microsoft Statement in 2016, there are as many as 1.2 billion unique Microsoft Office users in the world. Often times, we hear that our clients are mostly utilizing the more well-known applications in Office 365 like Outlook for email, Word, Excel and even OneNote or OneDrive. A big way to maximize the Office 365 investment you’re already committed to is choosing an intranet that utilizes the Office 365 tools to create a digital work space. Microsoft is always updating their customers, see 2017 announcements .
For example, Dock intranet is built and deployed on the framework of SharePoint so nearly all of our clients were existing Office 365 users. When Dock is deployed, we utilize all the hidden and spectacular features of SharePoint and we also deploy a host of new features on top of those. Now, instead of logging into SharePoint and seeing list and databases, you see a beautiful intranet interface and you’ll find all the features you need. This will allow your employee collaboration and business communication to improve.
Microsoft Office 365 also supports non-profits by offering a unique program. By providing your staff and volunteers with the dynamic set of tools included in Office 365 Nonprofit plans, you’ll be able to empower them to increase their productivity and effectiveness. Supply your team members with free email and online documents editing and storage. Including video conferencing, instant messaging, and your own Yammer site to bring your team together from anywhere in the world.
For Office 365 users, Microsoft Forms provides users a way to create surveys, quizzes, and polls, and easily see results as they come in. When you create a quiz or form, you can invite others to respond to it using any web browser, even on mobile devices. As results are submitted, you can use built-in analytics to evaluate responses. Form data, such as quiz results, can be easily exported to Excel for additional analysis or grading.
A twist on presentations by Microsoft Sway. Have you been introduced to Sway that comes with your Microsoft Office 365? An online platform that provides a powerful way to produce storytelling presentations and newsletter styles. Start with a template, be inspired by others, or remix your own to match your company brand.
With standard intranets, you’re dependent on the developer to create a system that can be accessed on mobile devices. Then, you have to hope that your company will have enough cloud storage to get your documents stored for remote access. In many situations, storage like this can cost a lot extra.
SharePoint, conversely, is built for document management. Out-of-the-box, it comes with 1 TB of data storage for your documents, but due to SharePoint’s document management specialties, additional data storage is inexpensive and very easy to purchase.
Dock was built for easy access so your employees will be able to utilize Microsoft’s superior cloud storage and Dock’s beautiful responsive interface. Your employees will be able to work from anywhere in the world, on any device, when they need to work without worrying about extra charges or unexpected technical difficulties.
Social media platforms at work may sound counter intuitive to encourage employees to communicate through social channels at work but we’re not talking about any kind of ordinary social platform. We’re referring to communication channels on the best intranet solution through SharePoint and Office 365such as Yammer for business chatter. Learn about more options for managing you social media platforms with Microsoft products .
This is a big decision maker for many companies. Your intranet is home to vital, sensitive documents. Losing them, or allowing them to fall into the wrong hands, is not acceptable. Additionally, your intranet runs many important processes in your business, so downtime and lost information is also not acceptable.
Many businesses choose an intranet built on Office 365 for the security and trust they already have in Microsoft applications. In Dock’s case, all of your files go into your Microsoft Cloud space and remain there. We never gain access to them, we never affect them and we can never see, delete or lose any of your important files. You also gain the dependability of Microsoft Office. Dock isn’t a program installed in your computer that lives on Dock’s servers – Dock lives on your computer and in Microsoft’s cloud, so if your Outlook is trustworthy, so is your intranet.
If you’re an Office 365 subscriber, a SharePoint intranet has the possibility to revolutionize the way your team works. Want to know if switching to SharePoint intranet is right for your company? We put together a quick guide to help you decide, read more here on our productivity blog.
See for yourself what a SharePoint intranet can mean for your team. There is only so much imagining and picturing you can do. Schedule a live demo with our intranet experts and experience why businesses around the world are choosing an Office 365 intranet. We’ll get to know more about your business and then show you exactly how Dock’s SharePoint intranet can transform your employees into the cohesive communicative team.